Man to be sentenced for child pornography site

NEWARK – A Ukrainian man who founded and operated an international child sexual abuse website faces sentencing in federal court in New Jersey.

Prosecutors on Tuesday will ask a judge to send Maksym Shynkarenko to prison for 30 years.

He was charged in June 2012 with operating a network of websites and faced a 32-count indictment. He pleaded guilty to operating a child-exploitation enterprise in connection with the website, which he ran from 2005-2008.

Prosecutors say the ongoing investigation into the website Shynkarenko operated has led to convictions in 47 states of more than 600 U.S.-based customers, including 30 men convicted in New Jersey.

Authorities have called Shynkarenko the most significant distributor of child porn ever prosecuted in the U.S.